ADDITION: Synapse - Region 'A' - Blu-ray September 16': Synapse has come out with their Blu-ray of Dario Argento's Tenebrae and is advertising it as "supervised color correction and restoration of a 1080p scan from the original camera negative". This appears to be a single disc version of Synapse, OOP, Tenebrae Steelbook - limited edition combo pack HERE.  NOTE: As the single disc Blu-ray release it does not contain the same materials as the Limited Edition Collectible Steelbook Edition of Tenebrae from Synapse Films. This version does not come in the collectible Steelbook packaging, does not contain the additional DVD format version, the CD soundtrack, or the collectible booklet. It is on a dual-layered disc with a supportive bitrate and it looks quite similar to the Arrow but there are quite a few scenes where the colors are darker (ex, notice the sand on the beach or the blood in the final comparison capture) and a bit richer. It looks fabulous to me.

The audio has both English and Italian options via a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channels at 24-bit and sounds intense and deep for the effects with the memorable score by the group effort of Massimo Morante, Fabio Pignatelli and Claudio Simonetti - 'Goblin' (Deep Red, Phenomena, Terror at the Opera). I listened to both languages, preferring the English, and the music sounded wonderful - all at once stylish, unique, electronic, atmospheric, creepy. Again, as strong as the Arrow linear PCM and as impressive as I have experienced for the film. It is crisp, tight - dialogue consistent and audible. There are optional English subtitles (newly translated) for both Italian and English tracks. The Blu-ray disc is region 'A'-locked.

Synapse include the audio commentary track featuring film critic and Argento scholar, Maitland McDonagh and some HD English sequence insert shots, playable within the film via seamless branching but for many the wonderful 1 1/2 hour documentary, Yellow Fever; the Rise and Fall of Giallo, directed by Calum Waddell, is premium. Produced by Rising Productions, it chronicles the Giallo film genre from its beginnings as early 20th century crime fiction, to its later influences on the modern slasher film genre. It features interviews with Dario Argento, Umberto Lenzi, Luigi Cozzi, Richard Stanley, Kim Newman and more. Fans can see the original UNSANE (U.S. version of Tenebrae) end credits sequence - running shy of 2-minutes. There is also, of similar length, the alternate opening credits sequence as well as international and Japanese trailers.

For those who missed the LE steelbook, this is a must own Blu-ray package. Very strongly recommended!

- Gary W. Tooze

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ADDITION: Arrow - Region 'B' - Blu-ray February 15': I would never try to speak to the theatrical authenticity of this film on digital. I have no idea, but as far as appearance goes - Arrow's new 1080P transfer looks substantially superior to any of the Tenebrae DVDs I have watched. It is darker, there are color shifts (depending on the specific SD transfer) - generally, skin tones warm. Detail rises substantially - look at the last matched capture with the text pages. Tighter and far richer than, even, Arrow's own HD-transferred DVD from 2011. I see it is also available in a Blu-ray Steelbook from Arrow HERE. There also was a previous Blu-ray from Wild Side in France HERE, way back in 2010, but I have no knowledge of its video presentation. I think this Arrow may have some slight digitization, but nothing that I could pick-up easily. To me it looks marvelous - by far, the best I have ever seen the film. It looks excellent in-motion.

Audio get s linear PCM for both the English and Italian langauges - both 2.0 channel mono at 2304 kbps. The score is by the group effort of Massimo Morante, Fabio Pignatelli and Claudio Simonetti - 'Goblin' (Deep Red, Phenomena, Terror at the Opera). I listened to both languages, preferring the English, and the music sounded wonderful - all at once stylish, unique, atmospheric, creepy. Again, best I have experienced for the film. It is crisp, tight, and some intensity present in the depth. There are optional English subtitles for Italian audio and English SDH subtitles for English audio for the deaf and hard of hearing. The Blu-ray disc is region 'B'-locked.

Incredible supplements are included on this Blu-ray; two audio commentaries- first an amazing dissertation with authors and critics Kim Newman and Alan Jones, and a second with Argento expert Thomas Rostock. There is the option of an 11 second introduction by star Daria Nicolodi in Italian with English subtitles, but the meat of the video extras come from many Arrow-related Productions, 15-minutes of The Unsane World of Tenebrae: an interview with director Dario Argento, 16-minutes of Screaming Queen! Daria Nicolodi remembering Tenebrae. A Composition for Carnage: offers 10-minutes of composer Claudio Simonetti on Tenebrae plus we get Goblin: Tenebrae and Phenomena Live, for 16-minutes, from the Glasgow Arches. There is a brand new, highly interesting 12-minute interview with Maitland McDonagh, author of Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento. Plus we get a lengthy original trailer and the package contains a DVD of the feature (and extras) plus a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by GGilles Vranckx and a collector's booklet featuring writing on the film by Alan Jones, author of Profondo Argento, an interview with cinematographer Luciano Tovoli and an appreciation of the film by director Peter Strickland, illustrated with original posters and lobby cards.

This Arrow Blu-ray is an essential for Argento and horror fans everywhere. I want to re-watch it right now. Strong recommendation!

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ADDITION: Arrow - Region 2- PAL DVD - June 2011: Mastered in high definition. Arrow Video's transfer of TENEBRAE is brighter than the previous DVD editions (possibly too bright, see cap 2 in which detail in the background sand is lacking compared to the earlier, darker releases). I did not notice any edge enhancement. Shot with 125- and 250-speed films rated at 300, Argento's and Tovoli's photography has dated (thanks in part to color palette of the wardrobe and set decoration - and the EUR locations - which lean towards whites and blues, with only occasional and striking reds), especially compared Tovoli's work on SUSPIRIA which (combined with the art direction and sets) so the slightest fading and print wear is just as detrimental to one's perception of the film's look as edge enhancement and the over-application of noise reduction with little in the way of strong colors and shadows to make such faults less apparent. I have not seen the new French BluRay transfer, but Arrow's transfer is the best of the editions I've seen (both Anchor Bay editions, the Dutch A-Film edition, and the utterly worthless 01 Distribution disc). The Italian mono and English stereo tracks are in good shape. The stereo remixing of the English track mainly benefits the film's pulsing score (I'm not sure how this compares to the 2.0 surround mix on the Anchor Bay editions), although the Italian mono is just as impressive. Arrow's disc offers the first opportunity to watch the film in Italian with English subtitles (the Italian R2 Medusa DVD's English subtitles were from the English dubbing script). The English subtitles include some of the killer's mutterings (which were hard to make out in the English version). English subtitles are are also included for the English track.

The first commentary track features critics Alan Jones and Kim Newman. As with their Blue Underground BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE commentary, this is an informal but informative track. They mention that Christopher Walken was Argento's first choice for the role and that Nicolai was intended to play the girl on the beach. Besides some familiar information (Theresa Russell dubbing Daria Nicolodi, charges of sexism and misogyny, and Goblin's contractual reasons for their screen credit), they discuss the EUR setting and how it lends itself to Argento's concept of a futuristic Rome, transexual Eva Robbins' recent notoriety, and some lesser-discussed Argento crew regulars like production designer Gisueppe Bassan (whose son designed Arento's OPERA and Giallo) and the Corridori brothers. Although seasoned viewers Jones and Newman frequently get ahead of the film in their discussion of sequences, the commentary does seem to drift out of sync with the onscreen action late in the film. Rostock discusses the film's symbolic use of water, contrasts the film's to sets of murders, and makes a compelling case for Argento's use of the doubling motif (more sophisticated here than in DEEP RED). He also discusses cinematographer Tovoli's use of then high-speed film stocks (ASA 125 and 250, both rated at 300), and the film's pioneeering use of the Steadicam and Louma crane in Italian film (Jones cites Antonioni's Tovoli-shot THE PASSENGER as the first to use the crane, but Rostock claims that Tovoli used a Wescam rig in the Antonioni film). There are instances where the film's audio is mixed a little too loudly into the commentary track.

In her usual charming mix of English and Italian, Daria Nicolodi mentions that she wanted to play Veronica Lario's part since it had more character than her role (similarly she prefers her ditzy journalist role in DEEP RED and her psychotic teacher in PHENOMENA). She remembers Franciosa fondly and expresses her displeasure at being dubbed by someone else for the English version. Argento relates the familiar story of how he was inspired to write TENEBRAE because of a stalker while he was developing a script in the US, and addresses the charges of misogyny and issues of censorship. Simonetti addresses the Goblin screen credit issues and the soundtrack's popularity in discos. Simonetti appears again on stage in Glasgow performing the themes from TENEBRAE and PHENOMENA (with clips from DAWN OF THE DEAD and SLEEPLESS projected behind his band). The film's theatrical trailer (in 4:3) rounds out the extras.

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ADDITION: 01 Distribution - Region 2 - PAL vs. A-Film - Region 2 - PAL - February 2010':  The new 01 Distribution DVD loses hands-down. Unlike the previous Medusa DVD, the 01 disc is non-anamorphic with an interlaced image sporting heavy combing throughout. The single layer disc sports the film's Italian mono dub (present on the Medusa DVD along with a 5.1 mix and the English mono dub as well as English and Italian subtitles). Note that the Medusa version may have been ported over by De Agostini for their "I Maestri della Paura" sell-through DVD series which pop up a lot on eBay's Italian site but I have no confirmation (the De Agostini sell-through disc of OPERA was not a port of the 1.85:1, Italian-only disc of OPERA but a 2.35:1 edition with Italian and English audio and subtitles in both languages). The OOP Dutch A-Film DVD features a progressive, anamorphic transfer that is cleaner and sharper than Anchor Bay's anamorphic R1 reissue (which has been rumored to be a 16:9 conversion of the 4:3 laserdisc master). Extras are limited to a filmography and unrelated trailers.

ADDITION: Anchor Bay 16X9 - May 08': Well, aside from anamorphicity there is no other update from the previous Anchor Bay. It has the exact same extras. Even the 16X9 enhancement doesn't appear to have a demonstrative effect on image improvement, but technically, it should look superior on an advanced systems.

Still no subtitles and the same audio options.

The Argento set seems a decent deal if you don't have all of the individual titles already (or depending on which ones you have). Phenomena (also boosted to 16X9) has a more noticeable improvement and that comparison is forthcoming. Stay tuned!

NOTE: Dan says (in email): "Just read your Tenebre comparison and noticed (or at least thought I did) that the new Anchor Bay seems to be vertically stretched. The actress in the first capture has a long face in the new Anchor Bay and a more naturally proportioned one in the other two captures. Tellingly the camera lens is far more of an oval than in should be in the forth 16:9 capture. The (admittedly unreliable) IMDB has the film at 1.85:1 and stretching this to fill the 1.78:1 16:9 image would account for this distortion. While seemingly minor this is one of those things that can't help but niggle at me when watching a film. It's that slight distortion of the film's reality that ultimately proves more annoying than any loss in resolution of a non-anamorphic image (on a 16:9 display)." - Thanks Dan!

Robert tells us in email: "I would second Dan’s comment about vertical stretching in the 16x9 Anchor Bay TENEBRE (now available as a single disc as well as part of the Argento 5-disc set). He is absolutely on target: the initial, non-anamorphic version (from the same source as the Austrian Sazuma disc) is in the usual theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 (it may even be a trifle wider: it is listed here at 1.91:1). The vertically distorted AB 16x9 version was apparently an attempt to fill modern 1.78:1 16x9 TV screens. Why it was deemed necessary when so many anamorphically enhanced DVDs retain their theatrical 1.85:1 shape is inexplicable. Moreover, Anchor Bay did it on the cheap: rather than returning to an unmatted original film element for real re-framing, they simply stretched the old video master’s image at the time they did the anamorphic enhancement. There is little difference between 1.85 and 1.78, so AB might have gotten away with it, but they carelessly over-stretched it so much that the bottom of the image is obviously cropped; ironically, the generous 1.78:1 aspect ratio would more than have accommodated all the material nearly unnoticeably if the stretching had been done judiciously.

The result is that the only available 16x9 version of TENEBRE is a failure. As Dan points out, several of the screen caps here show the extent of the distortion. An even better example occurs in the film (both releases) at 32:41, the close-up of a camera lens--an emblematic image in this particular film. In the old version, it is round, as expected; in the vertically over-stretched 16x9 version, it is absurdly oval. No DVD reviewer has preferred the 16x9 Anchor Bay version to its predecessor, and the very astute Ian Jane, writing for DVD Talk at HERE is quite clear about the vertical stretching, saying that the transfer has “serious problems.”

One somewhat more positive thought: while both Anchor Bay editions of TENEBRE contain an Italian audio option but no subtitles, the 16x9 version, unlike its predecessor, does have English closed-captions. These could substitute for true subtitles (however poorly) when playing the Italian track. On the other hand, HDMI connections, which are preferred for HD viewing, don’t support old-style closed-captions like these.

Closed-captions aside, I would vote to replace the AB 16x9 with the original non-anamorphic AB for preferred video status in the “Report Card.”.

(Thanks to Robert E. Seletsky!) 

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The picture quality is pretty much the same as Anchor Bay and Sazuma both took their print from the Roan Group LD. If I was forced to lean one way I think the Anchor Bay is slightly sharper as I can notice a touch of contract boosting in the Sazuma. Both have noticeable scratches.

The Austrian DVD is shorter as there are missing scenes and are treated as deleted scenes ( and shown in the Extras ) : ex. the end of the scene where Nicolodi and Franciosa enter his hotel room and a quick insert shot of a stab -under 10 seconds in total. The Anchor Bay shows the film with these scenes and adds about 4 minutes to the total time.

The Extras, I gave to Anchor Bay for the commentary, but the Sazum ahs some nice additions as well including the 15:00 minute interview with Argento. I suppose the bottom line is that you should make your won determinations. If you want the so-called "deleted scenes", if you want the Argento commentary, but basing it solely on sound and image it is a toss-up.  

- Gary W. Tooze